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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25881541">The Bug Initiative</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreyAreaSystem/pseuds/jaebirdbluetheawesome'>jaebirdbluetheawesome (GreyAreaSystem)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Bashing, Marinate can't keep a secret to save her life, Quite Literally</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:55:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,584</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25881541</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreyAreaSystem/pseuds/jaebirdbluetheawesome</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Marinette being Ladybug was anything but a secret. Well, to her classmates anyway.<br/>She hadn’t meant for the secret to get out, but, well, the fate of the city resting on one person's shoulders was quite terrifying. </p><p>Basically, I wrote every possible reveal situation with every classmate I could think of until I ran out.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>349</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Bug Initiative</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Fu could not have chosen a worse holder for Ladybug, really. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>At first, she was able to cover it up. Explain away sudden disappearances, convince them she was late all the time because of work, the regular stuff. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But she could only do that for so long. She only lasted for so much time before the whole class, with the exception of Lila and Adrien, knew she was Ladybug.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It started with Nino, really. The two had been walking home from a party when someone had jumped out of an alley and stabbed her. Nino had fought the guy off, with intention to kill him, but the criminal narrowly escaped. Problem was, said beat-up criminal was now pissed. And got Akumatized. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nino, I can’t…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, it’s ok, Ladybug will get him and she’ll save everyone, and-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nino, the suit… it doesn’t protect me from civilian injuries. I can't fight him with a stab wound…” She spat out blood from the fight they had gotten in. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean suit, what are you…” His eyes widened with realization. “You’re Ladybug.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not right now, I’m not.” She pulled the earrings out, and handed them to him. “Currently, you are.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t be Ladybug!” He almost dropped them in surprise. “You are!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“YEAH, I’M ALSO BLEEDING OUT ONTO THE GROUND!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t have pierced ears!” He yelled. She swore loudly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tikki, he can just pin them to his clothes or something can’t he?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, Marinette. They can be pierced anywhere.” Tikki confirmed, and Marinette yanked Nino towards herself. She grabbed the earrings, and stabbed them into the rubber casing of his headphones. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve seen me do it a hundred times.” She patted his shoulder as she grimaced in pain. “Call the lucky charm after finding the akumatized item, yaddah yaddah yaddah, go on. Say Tikki Spots on. Fix this.” He freaked out for a second, but after a smack from Marinette, he called on the transformation. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Chat Noir was confused as hell at the bright red boy with black sleeves and spotted headphones, but he let it slide. There was significantly less flirting this time, seeing as there was none at all. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bug de Chance, nice to meet you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where is my lady.” Chat Noir growled at him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nowhere you need to worry about.” Bug de Chance had no idea how she put up with this guy, honestly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What have you done to her?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me? Nothing. We can help her when we get rid of this asshole instead of standing around talking.”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>The second time, it was Kagami. And Marinette had pneumonia.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not letting you out of my sight.” Kagami took her vow from when Mairnette had called her to tell she wasn’t allowed to go to school a little too seriously as Marinette was completely bedridden and attempting to fight. “I mean it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But… My grandma really needs to be checked up on?” She tried. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re grandma kicks more ass than you.” Kagami frowned at her. “And you’re perfectly safe in your bedroom, Ladybug and Chat Noir can handle this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck it.” Marinette knew she was too sick to fight. She couldn’t get out of this if she tried. “You have pierced ears, don’t you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I asked if you have pierced ears, Ryuko.” She repeated, slightly more agitated this time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How did you-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“BECAUSE I’M LADYBUG, DUMBASS.” She handed her the earrings, and it took her a solid thirty seconds to register what was happening. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You… you can’t fight.” She realized. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes! Now take the damn earrings, Chat’s probably lost without me. You. Us?” She was too dazed to think straight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You need me to be Ladybug?” Kagami still hadn't got to that yet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes! And I need you to be Ladybug like twenty minutes ago!” She hollered, and it finally clicked in the girls head what she needed to do.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“M’Lady, did you get a haircut?” Chat Noir frowned at her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mess this up for me and I’ll feed you to an alligator.” Madame Luck growled, and Chat snapped into shape realizing what had happened… again. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why can’t he be that good of a partner for me? He actually listened to you.” Marinette scowled as Kagami gave the earrings back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Threaten to kill him. It worked for me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Noted.”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>The third, shockingly, was Max. They had been hanging out together when Marinette fell down his stairs and broke a vase. There was blood absolutely everywhere. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Holy shit.” Max freaked the fuck out as he called an ambulance, his father at work and his mother up in space, but Marinette was mostly just angry. Angry because she saw an Akuma.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Max, listen…” She had to grab him by his shirt to stop from freaking out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I need you to run to my house, and get under my bed. Once you find the Miracle box, grab your glasses, and teleport straight back here but </span>
  <em>
    <span>do not let anyone see the Pegasus in my house do you understand</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” She hissed at him. He understood much faster than Kagami did. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh no way.” He mumbled, but took off in an instant. She wondered if this was going to become a common occurrence. It practically had already. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pegasus appeared next to her minutes later. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ok, now what?” He squired confusedly. She handed him the earrings, and she saw him freeze. “I… no, I can’t be laybug, you’re ladybug, and-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You have to say “Tikki, Kaalki, unify’ and then you can be both Pegasus and Ladybug at the same time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I don’t-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look, the ambulance will be here any second, you have to go… go save everyone, Max.” He nodded, activated the earrings after attacking them to his shirt since he also didn’t have pierced ears, and the moment he left the door was burst open by paramedics. Good, she was running out of blood. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The next day at school, Max showed up with two bright gold earrings on the top of his left ear, right next to each other. Marinette gave a nod of approval. </span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>She was surprised Luka hadn’t been sooner. She knew this was going to happen eventually, but she was impressed she managed to last that long.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Luka, the Akuma, it got my leg, I-” She choked, seven months after the whole ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Pegasus is now Valkyrie and spotted</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ thing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s ok, Ladybug will fix everything, you just need to-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No you idiot, I won’t.” She grumbled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? You won’t what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No I won’t save everyone with a broken leg, Viperion.” She snarled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You… you know.” He stated. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know because I gave the damn thing to you, and I need you to listen to me Carefully.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Marinette, what the hell are you-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The magic doesn’t protect me from injuries prior to putting on the suit, only after. You need to take the earrings today.” She pulled them out, and handed them to him. “Can I trust you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean I guess.” He deadpanned, finally realizing what was happening. “But a little warning may have been nice.” She rolled her eyes at him, trying not to cry from the pain of her broken leg. He took his own earrings out, and they traded. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Who are you?” Chat Noir froze at the yet new face. “Why does this keep happening?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ladybug is currently unavailable, but I can take a message.” Red Bug practically snarled at him. “And where she is, is none of your business.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, well maybe you should just-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lucky Charm!” Red cut him off as the Akuma, a small kid who was turning the entire city into a dirtbike track, flew towards them. Three small toys fell into his hand, a turtle, a fox, and a dragon. He knew what he had to do, but… he couldn't. He didn’t have that knowledge. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the hell are you-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gotta go, Chat!” He flew off towards where Marinette had been last. He found she had been surrounded by paramedics, trying to help her with her broken leg. He couldn;t go confront her like this, so how on earth was he supposed to-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stopped. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Spots off.” Tikki appeared next to him as he landed in an alley. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s going on?” Tikki asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The other miraculous, where does Marinette keep them? I need help.” Tikki hesitated. She </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> given him the idea to get help, after all… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Under her bed. She keeps them in a box.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I don’t know who the real Carapace, Ryuko, and Rena Rouge are.” He grumbled in frustration as he made his way through the sandy Paris to the bakery. He hoped he could get in. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You need to trust your gut on this, Luka. That's what the real Ladybug does.” He nodded, and ran into her room. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He dug around until he found the Miracle Box, and grabbed the miraculous he needed. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nino Lahiffe, this is the-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where’s Marinette?” Red Bug froze at his sudden question. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She only gives over the Ladybug mantle when somethings wrong, what happened to her?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You… you </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span>?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I was the very </span>
  <em>
    <span>first</span>
  </em>
  <span> person it happened to when she got stabbed. Of course I know.” Nino grabbed the bracelet, and transformed into Carapace. Huh. So he had been right. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She broke her leg trying to get away, but I’m sure when she gets Tikki back she’ll go back to being fine fairly quickly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good. Let’s go get Alya.” Carapace nodded at the necklace. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How much do you</span>
  <em>
    <span> actually</span>
  </em>
  <span> know?” Red Bug frowned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Too much, honestly.”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where is my Lady.” Chat Noir growled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Safe.” King Monkey, or rather, Monkey Bug snarled back. The only reason he had both miraculous was because Pegasus trusted him enough to let him take one out of the Miracle Box. After getting express permission from the Guardian, of course. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Doesn’t answer my question.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Suck my ass about it, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Partner</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Monkey Bug reminded him, and Chat regretfully fought alongside him to take down an Akuma. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tell me-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“People aren’t property, Chat Noir.” Monkey Bug cut him off as he jumped into a portal provided by Pegasus. “She doesn’t owe you anything.”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“My Lady, you need to stop revealing yourself to people.” Chat Noir gave her a strange look. “I’m just glad to have my REAL lady back out here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was an emergency!” Ladybug insisted, stepping away from Chat Noir before he could reach out and touch her. “And you don’t get to tell me what to do! I am my own person, my choices are mine to make.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is dangerous, so many people know who-” She zipped off, and disappeared without him ever getting close. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Somewhere on a rooftop, Lady Rena Bug was sighing deeply before climbing back into her bedroom window, sneaking earrings back to a sleep-deprived Marinette. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did the bastard go away?” She mumbled, not even able to pick her own head up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, not really. But I did make you yell at him!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Progress.” She whispered before starting to snore. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sleep tight, Ladybug.” Alya whispered to her tiny friend. “You deserve it.”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Juleka found out in the hospital, after Marinette hit her head tripping on a loose brick and knocking herself out on a water fountain. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>No one knew where Ladybug was. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not even her friends, who Juleka had not thought to contact randomly talking about Marinette hitting her head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Juleka sat next to Marinette, still mostly unconscious, when her phone went off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hey, have you seen Marinette recently?</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ It was from Nino.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Yeah, we’re in the hospital. She hit her head on a water fountain and knocked herself out cold. I’m waiting until her parents show up</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>‘Damn.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Moments later, she was called out to the front desk by a nurse. But then she remembered she left her phone in her chair, and doubled back to get it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She opened the door to find Pegasus taking Marinette’s earrings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit.” He deadpanned, and Marinette, now somewhat awake, just yawned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Juleka. I’m Ladybug.” She mumbled before drifting off to sleep again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh.” Was all she said, and Pegasus disappeared before Marinette’s parents could arrive. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rose didn’t have a dramatic story, she found out when she saw her de-transform in a very inconvenient place.  She gave her an apology cupcake for finding out. It was very cute. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She honestly told Nathaniel on accident. Really, she was NOT cut out for this whole </span>
  <em>
    <span>‘secret identity</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ thing on ANY level.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>You see, Lila had been up to her old bitchy tricks again, except this time she went farther than the school.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She went to the fucking Law Enforecment. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lila had somehow managed to get Marinette arrested, but Max was able to provide evidence against the case and bust her out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Nathaniel happened to be in the precinct when the whole thing went down, interning under the sketch artist. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Marinette had not known he was present when she grumbled at Max, </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Someone tell Marc to add</span>
  <em>
    <span> this</span>
  </em>
  <span> part of my life to his next comic book.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” She whipped around and saw Nathaniel behind her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh…” She tried to come up with a bullshit excuse, but she couldn’t. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But Marc writes stories about…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” She shrugged. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And that makes you…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yup.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh wow.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just… don’t tell anyone untrustworthy, ok? I would tell you not to tell </span>
  <em>
    <span>anyone</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but… I clearly failed at that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” They went their separate ways. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The next week, she found a notebook on her bed. It was titled, </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>‘The Miraculous Life of Malorie De La Croix’</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiled as she read a book based pretty much off of herself. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yeah, there was no way Marc didn’t know too.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Chloé found out when Marinette was running out of time, and crashed through her bedroom window. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dupain-Cheng?” She gave her a confused look as she groaned, and tried not to roll over on glass. “How did you break bulletproof glass?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How do you </span>
  <em>
    <span>think</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” Marinette grumbled, and Chloé just shook her head at her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You need a snack, don’t you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That left Ivan, Meyléne, Alix and Sabrina. Also Lila and Adrien, but she would rather die before they found out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Has anyone seen either Adrien or Lila today?” Ivan frowned as he looked around the room. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Or Mme. Bustier?” Alix noticed the absence of a teacher.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, in the absence of Mme. Bustier and our class president Mari, I guess I’ll have to take attendance as her Deputy.” Alys sighed, and climbed behind their teachers desk. Max had hacked her computer plenty of times, nearly half the class knew how to get into it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She got in, when the door flew open, and… Ladybug walked in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry I’m late to class, there was an Akuma and I got caught up.” She yawned, and then passed out on the floor. The class, pretending not to know what was going on, looked at her shock, trying to cover up that they knew to protect themselves. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>About thirty seconds later, her transformation dropped and Marinette was lying on the floor, knocked out cold. Tikki shook her head at her chosen before ‘hiding’ in her pocket.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then, suddenly there was an outburst of laughter, from everyone except the four who didn’t know. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Marinette?” Meyléne frowned. “It was her the whole time?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Alya giggled, and shook her head. “It really was.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Does anyone want to tell me why-” Alix started, but cut herself off when Lila and Adrien strolled in. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s so funny?” Lila smiled at them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nothing.” Everyone mumbled, and scrambled to look like they were at work. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yeah, Fu really fucked up with this one.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
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